Relapse
by Torxe
Summary: My very first novel, Takes place one year after the final battle between the allianced army and Madara Uchiha.   The shinobi world prepares for a time of peace. A wise course of action or too optimistic? Find out!
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Naruto characters the OC's are mine though, keep your hands of of them... :p**

"Ordinary speech" / "**Shouting**" / "_Thoughts_" / "_**Angry thoughts**_"

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><p><strong>Prologue:<strong>

_"I'm not a wimp am I?"_ were the thoughts of a man escorted by two cloaked warriors.  
>Well, at first sight this is nothing to doubt your own strength, or in this case, the lack of it.<p>

This man was supposed to meet a contact in, what his leaders called, 'the hidden world'.  
>This contact had promised them assistance, assistance they desperately needed because of the war brewing in their homeland.<p>

Yesterday he had finally reached the hidden world, the journey had been uneventful until he had notice a small boat following.  
>He wasn't sure he was being followed, but his guild had not informed him about any assistance that would travel with him and the chance of the boat transporting travelers or goods was nonexistent. The great ocean was not something people would cross on a whim, the risks were too great, the currents treacherous and the journey unbearably long.<p>

So, at the first inhabited island that he had encountered in the hidden world. He had pulled a clever trick that had earned a lucky fisherman a new boat.  
>And that would, hopefully, confuse his pursuers. At first he had thought that his plan had worked, until he had reached the agreed meeting spot.<br>There he didn't encounter his contact but the two warriors who were his current escorts.

He had tried to retreat but these warriors had intercepted him in seconds. In a desperate attempt to get away he had tried to fight them, however every single one of his attacks had been countered, his greatsword that usually broke through every and all weapons had been stopped.  
>What shocked him the most was that it took them only one punch to take him out. That in itself was highly unusual for warriors; they hadn't attacked him with a weapon but barehanded. Even more unusual was that the punch had managed to explode in one way or another.<br>But the fact remained that he had been defeated with one punch.

Anyone would feel weak after the defeat he had suffered.  
>It was the same for him, he who was considered one of the strongest warriors in his guild and the best combat instructor of his homeland.<br>This had been the reason they had entrusted him with this mission in the first place.

But still it had taken these guys only one punch to take him out.  
>That they didn't bother to put him in shackles or disarm him, only made it worse. They didn't even consider him dangerous.<p>

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><p>It was after this chain of events that I found myself being led through a series of tunnels into a large underground cave.<p>

Well it wasn't really the kind of cave where you would take shelter for the night while traveling, the dim light provided by the candles and torches and the water leaking through the sealing made it feel more like a dungeon. At the end of this dungeon, in front of a stone throne, stood a man, this man had white mid-long spiky hair and wore a black outfit with a purple line going down each sleeve of his jacket. Around his waist he wore a red sash in which he had tucked two swords, one at each of his sides. This putted me at ease and pissed me off at the same time.

He fitted the description I was given of my contact. So at least I hadn't fallen into the hands of my pursuers, but that also meant that I got beaten by some underlings, with only one punch! I seriously thought these two would have been the leader of their guilds.  
>At least that's what I had hoped for, for the sake of what was left of my pride.<p>

Once my escorts and I had entered the hall the white-haired man spoke "Ah our guest has arrived, are you here to fulfill your end of the agreement?" My patience was already at its limits because of the past events, but this was the last straw. "_Because of him I get beaten like some rookie and now this guy thinks he can act like nothing happened? He knows that we consider this a very delicate matter, our future is on the line and this guy is just goofing around.  
>Instead of showing up himself, as was agreed upon in his last message, he sends two of his subordinates. He should have known that I would retreat as soon as I saw two persons instead of the one that was said to be there. That also meant that this guy knew his subordinates could stop me. <strong>With.<strong>_ **_Only. One. Punch!"_** I'd never been this humiliated in my whole life.

"**Agreement, what agreement?** **You were supposed to meet me, not have two of your lackeys humiliate me! If we had known this is how you fulfill your promises we would have searched our help elsewhere!" **Shit… I snapped, how's he going to react?

To my surprise the white haired man simply smiled and made a small gesture. A woman stepped out of the dark, she was in her late teens, her long red hear reached just below her shoulders. She wore a purple top, black miniskirts and glasses with a purple frame.

"Relax, my friend, the fact you know that bit of information proves you're not an imposter. Not one person in my organization knew that I was supposed to be your contact, only your leaders were told how your contact would look like" the man explained "But, to be sure… Karin?"

"I don't feel the tiniest bit of chakra coming from him" she answered plainly.

"_So this whole time I was being played like a fool?_ _And_ c_hakra? What the hell is chakra supposed to be?_" I was just about to respond when the white haired man spoke again.

"Good," he smirked "you will teach me some of those interesting techniques and I will provide your guild with my assistance when the time comes. Now Karin, see to our guest's wounds and show him to his quarters."

And even though he had been friendly throughout the whole conversation there was something in his voice that made it clear to me that this just wasn't a person you messed with. That is, if you valued your life. "_Oh god, why did I get assigned to this again?"_ and while I was being led to my quarters, I remembered that I had volunteered.

Just goes for showing how f*cking bright I am.

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><p><strong>To Be Continued...<strong>

**Next time:**

**Chapter 1: Training - A new way to enjoy peace?**


	2. Chapter 1  Training

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The OCs however I do own so keep your hands of those… :p**

"speech" / "**shouts**" / "_thoughts_" / "**a**_**ngry thoughts**_"

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Training – A new way to enjoy peace?<strong>

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><p>The wind blowing over the clearing where a lone blond shinobi was waiting to begin his journey home. This blond shinobi was known as Uzumaki Naruto, he looked nearly just the same as when he had been fighting in the war, bright blue eyes, whisker marks on his cheeks and he still wore that orange-black jumpsuit that his godfather had bought him.<p>

The only notable changes were the fact that he had grown a lot, he stood over 6 feet tall, and that he had started to wear the red black-flamed haori that he had gotten on mount Myobokuzan.

Right now the blond was waiting for his teammate so they could travel home together. Naruto had been training to control the Kyuubi for the past month on an island situated on the border of the land of lightning and the land of water. He knew that it wasn't going to be an easy task, so he had asked some friends for help.

But even with his friends he hasn't been able to fully control the nine-tails power. They had however coaxed the Kyuubi in cooperating and had found the problem: Naruto's chakra. Naruto always has had an amazing amount of chakra even for a jinchuuriki and the chakra from members of Naruto's family seemed to have the property to suppress the power of the Kyuubi. So to be able to fully control the nine-tails power, Naruto first had to find a way to control his bloodline like ability. Naruto and his friends had decided to suspend this training for the moment and return to their respective villages until Naruto had learned the control necessary.

And fate would have it that one of these friends ran into the clearing right now.

"**Sorry to keep you waiting, Naruto"**

It was his teammate and the girl who had captured his hart a long time ago, the kunoichi Sakura Haruno. Like Naruto she hasn't changed that much since the war last year. Her pink hair reached just above her shoulders, just the way he liked it, and her bright emerald green eyes were as beautiful as ever. Her outfit hadn't changed either, she still wore that red sleeveless shirt with her brownish skirt-like thing over her black leggings while using her hitai-ate to keep her hair back. This showed the only change in her appearance, the purple diamond-shaped tattoo on her forehead.

Only recently she had figured out how to store chakra behind a seal, which meant that her chakra capacity had nearly doubled. It was a feat she was quite proud of, with this she had gotten one step closer to surpassing her master, the fifth hokage, the best medical ninja in the five elemental nations.

"I ran into Bee-san on my way here, he wanted me to tell you he's going to pick up our escorts at the shore. He should be here any minute now."

Killer Bee was Naruto's other friend that had agreed to help him. He was the Hachibi jinchuuriki of Kumogakure and the only known Jinchuuriki to fully control his bijuu's power. If you didn't know him, Killer Bee could be quite intimidating. He was rather tanned, had a very muscular build, a bad-ass tattoo in the form of two bull-horns on his face and as if that wasn't enough he also had 8 swords strapped to his back.

"Escorts? Why do we need escorts? Me and Bee are both S-class shinobi, why would Kumo have to waste shinobi to guard us while there probably isn't a single ninja in the whole ninja world who can take us on at the moment."

"Sheesh Naruto relax, it's not like they're going to babysit us all the way back to the village. We'll just sail along on their ship until we reach the shore of the land of fire, and then they return to their village on their own, last I checked you weren't that great at sailing."

"Hey, you can't be awesome at everything Sakura-chan"

"Yeah, yeah whatever… Oh here they come."

During their little exchange Killer Bee and four kumo-shinobi had stepped out of the forest and were coming to meet them.

"**Hey Bee, what took you so long?"** Naruto yelled

"**Two of these guys were lost so we have been looking all over for them!" **was Bee's answer

"**How du…"**Naruto started but was interrupted by Sakura.

"Will you two….. **stop shouting already"** Sakura yelled, sending them both flying with her chakra enhanced strength "sheesh, we might be outside but there's no need to yell when you're only two passes apart"

"We'we Sowwy"

Turning to the other Kumo ninja she said "And what's this I hear about shinobi getting lost?"

The oldest of the four, definitely the squad leader, stepped forward while doing his outmost best to keep as much distance as possible between him and the angry kunoichi in front of him.

"Actually we didn't get lost, to get to Konoha we must travel in another direction than if we were to travel to Kumogakure. So in preparation for your depart we already put one of our boats on the other side of the island."

"Oh I'm sorry, I guess…"  
>"No problem, it's actually Bee-sama's fault for always making these things up."<p>

* * *

><p>With Bee and Naruto:<p>

"I've got to admit that woman is wicked strong, not to mention short tempered." Bee said

"Yeah, tell me about it but don't let her hear you!"

"What's that Naruto?" Sakura asked

"Nothing, nothing…, just saying goodbye. See ya later Bee" Naruto said while hastily making his way to Sakura.

"Yeah, yeah 'til next time, just be sure to point those two squirts in the general direction of the land of lightning. Don't want them to get lost now do we?" Killer Bee called out to him.

"Bee-sama with all due respect, but there's really no need to keep ridiculing us like that…" the squad leader responded.

"Oh come on, you got to lighten up a bit ya sourpuss, it's just a little joke" Bee responded "Now off we go".

With that he and his own escorts took off towards the other side of the island.

With Bee gone, Naruto got to focus his attention on his two escorts, they had gotten the squad leader who was a chuunin andd a genin.  
>If he had to guess he'd say that they were about 14 and 12 years old.<p>

"Well we'd better be off to guys" he said gesturing at the two kumo nin.  
>"Hai, Uzumaki-san"<br>"Naruto's fine and drop the san if you would, eh… Sourpuss?"  
>"Ah that's right, excuse us for not introducing ourselves sooner, my name's Hiroshi, and that's my teammate Isamu"<br>"Pleased to meet you Naruto, Haruno-san" Isamu added  
>"Pleased to meet you to and please, call me Sakura"<br>"As you wish. If you would follow me Sakura-san, Naruto" Hiroshi said, leading the way.

* * *

><p>They hadn't crossed half the way to the forest when two men stepped into the clearing, one had a Chouji-like build and two small axes tucked into his belt, while the other had a leaner build and a spear strapped across his back. Both were donned in traveler clothes.<p>

"_Weird place for travelers"_ Naruto thought "_And those weapons…, no they're definitely not travelers. But those weapons aren't the typical sort for bandits either, I wonder who they are and what they're doing on this island._"

"Hello, there" the one with the spear called out to them "have you by any chance seen a big, bald guy with a huge sword?"

"_So? Travelers looking for a friend?"_

It was Hiroshi who answered: "No sorry, we didn't encounter anyone like that on this island"

"That's too bad" the man answered.

"But since you're the first people we encountered in a while and our provisions are kind of running low, would you mind leaving those full packs on the ground and continue on your way?" the other man added while drawing his axes.

"_No, more like bandits looking for a friend and no ordinary bandits either, bandits foolish enough to try to rob a group of four shinobi!"_

The poor man had not even gotten into his stance before Naruto was upon him, a punch to the cheek while sweeping his leg from under him caused him to crash head first into the ground, leaving a small crater while he was at it.

"_Well that was slow, even for the average bandit"_

Naruto turned his gaze towards the poor sod's companion, that Isamu kid was already running towards the guy with the spear. Naruto didn't think the kid would need his help, judging from the guy laying in front of him they couldn't even mold chakra. The kid would be able to handle this with ease.

That's when Naruto noticed something was wrong, or the guy had never fought with a spear before, or that was no ordinary fighting style.

He didn't know much about weapons but he had worked and sparred together with Ten-Ten often enough to know that you don't spin a spear like you would spin a Bo-staff and there definitely wasn't supposed to appear an aura around it that looked like he had infused it with raiton chakra.

Naruto had no time to lose, he started to run towards the lean guy, but no matter how fast he had gotten in the last year, he could not prevent that the kid jumped and striked the spear with his kunai, forcing the wide-eyed man in a power struggle. The struggle didn't last too long, almost immediately after striking the spear, the raiton aura had traveled along the kunai into the body of Isamu, the kid screamed out in pain and seemed to shake for a moment before he fell to the ground.

"**Sakura-chan, take care of him" **Naruto yelled, still running, he closed his eyes for a moment and was suddenly surrounded by a golden aura, he crossed the remaining distance with a yellow flash and delivered the guy with the spear a powerful jab to the face which send him flying into a tree. He didn't stand up again.

"_What the hell was that technique?"_ Naruto thought while letting his Kyuubi cloak dissipate "_I was sure I didn't feel any chakra from these guys, unless they're high level shinobi capable of hiding their chakra to the level that you can mistake them for civilians, they shouldn't have been able to perform any jutsu. I'm not even sure it was a jutsu. I've never seen someone reacting that way after being hit with a raiton."_

"How is he Sakura-san" Hiroshi asked. Like Naruto, Hiroshi had felt like Isamu would be more than capable to take the guy with the spear out.

"He's going to be fine" she responded "it might take a while until he's fully healed, though. He's lucky that guy didn't have more time to prepare that technique of his, a few more seconds and that attack would have been strong enough to kill him."

"Wait, Sakura-chan, you know that technique?"

"No, but I do know that it wasn't an ordinary raiton jutsu, raiton jutsu's usually cause piercing damage but this boy has suffered from the same type of damage as someone who was electrocuted. My guess is that, that guy (she pointed to the tree) generated electricity with that spinning motion of his. Upon striking with the kunai the electricity has transferred through the kunai into his body. If the attack had gotten more time to charge Isamu would most likely be dead."

"_One thing is for sure"_ she thought "_these guys weren't used to fighting shinobi!"_

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><p><strong>To Be Continued…<strong>

**Next time:**

**Chapter 2: Intruders – They just keep on coming!**


	3. Chapter 2  Intruders

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The OCs however I do own so keep your hands of those… :p**

"speech" / "**shouts**" / "_thoughts_" / "**a**_**ngry thoughts**_"

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Intruders – They just keep on coming!<strong>

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><p>"<em>What happened?"<em> Isamu thought wearily while he tried to push himself into a sitting position. A sharp pain in his chest made short work of his attempt.  
>"Easy now, don't push yourself too hard, you've been electrocuted" Sakura said when she noticed the genin was awake.<p>

"_That's right that spear bastard pulled some kind of trick on me. It may have looked like a regular raiton jutsu but it certainly didn't feel like one."_

"How long was I out?" he asked  
>"Only about 10 minutes, I started healing you right away and Naruto took care of that guy.<br>Right now he and Hiroshi are tying up those bandits." Sakura responded.

"What are we going to do with them?" Hiroshi asked  
>"Well Naruto and Hiroshi agreed that they will stand trial in the land of lightning for injuring one of their shinobi"<br>"Are you saying we need to take those two along?"  
>"Don't worry I'll store them away for now" Naruto said, joining the conversation.<p>

"After we've returned to Konoha I'll send them to the Raikage with an explanation. Who knows what other techniques they still have" he continued while weaving signs. "**Kuchiyose no jutsu"**

A moment later an orange toad as large as a house had appeared in the clearing.  
>"Yo, Naruto" the toad greeted<br>"Hi, Gamakichi. Could you keep an eye on these two guys for me?"  
>"No problem." The toad answered. With that he took the two prisoners in his mouth and disappeared in another cloud of smoke.<p>

"Well that's convenient" Isamu commented

"Anyway, what kind of jutsu did that spear guy use on me?" he asked  
>"We're not sure" was Naruto's answer "Sakura-chan said you showed signs of electrocution, but raiton chakra doesn't deliver that kind of damage, normally if you enhance a weapon or punch with raiton chakra you improve the piercing capability of it. Also, in the whole fight they haven't used a single shred of chakra, so I think that was not a raiton jutsu at all but a whole new kind of technique."<p>

"Are you saying that they've used a technique that doesn't require chakra?" Sakura asked

"I'm pretty sure these two can't even mold chakra, even while they were unconscious I didn't feel any and as far as I know it's impossible to hide your chakra while you're unconscious." Naruto answered.

"Even if they had this kind of techniques, they were pretty weak.  
>I mean you've beaten them in 30 seconds or less, why make such a fuss about these techniques?" Hiroshi asked.<p>

It was Sakura who answered "I think these guys are a lot stronger than they appear, they didn't know what shinobi are, even less so Jinchuuriki or chakra, so they weren't expecting a counterattack with such high speeds. And that spear guy has gravely injured Isamu with that technique while simply blocking his kunai strike. I think rank or ability matters little against these techniques, my guess is that even if you, me or Naruto would have touched or stricken that spear we would have suffered the same injuries."

"But if these techniques would fall into the wrong hands, say a shinobi with bad intentions, he would have a technique that doesn't use chakra, and is very difficult to defend against?" Naruto asked. "That doesn't sound too good."

"I've thought of that too, so now Isamu is awake we should probably return to Konoha and report this to Tsunade-sama."  
>"We'll do the same once we've finished our mission" Hiroshi added<p>

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><p>"Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice... Weather" Kotetsu yawned, while he attempted to lay more comfortable in his chair by putting his feet on top of his desk.<p>

Usually he didn't like his gate guarding duty or any other of his annoying little chores for that matter. But when the weather was nice he didn't mind.

After all, how many ninja got to lay in the sun and only had to write down a name and purpose for staying when someone wanted entrance in the village.

"You better stay focused if you don't want us to be scolded by the godaime, again..." Izumo warned him.  
>"Seriously", he continued "I'm pretty sure the only reason we're always used as errand boys is because you're slacking off all the time."<p>

"Well tell me this," Kotetsu retorted "how the hell is any Chuunin supposed to stay focused while doing a job where never, ever something interesting happens?"

It was at this time a figure wearing a hooded dark-brown cloack approached the gate, his face mostly hidden by the hood.

Izumo was the first to notice the traveler, "Whatever", he said ending their argument "I'm going to take a leak, you better take care of getting that traveler checked in."  
>"Remember, if you shake it more than three times, you're playing with it..." was the response Izumo got, which he ignored as he continued into the bushes.<p>

During this conversation the traveler had already passed through the city's gate and was taking in the environment.

Pain's attack had left a huge crater in the middle of the village and the inhabitants of the leaf had rebuild the village in the center of it. A giant slope along the closest flank and several smaller ones, scattered across the rest of the crater wall, provided the means to get from the center of the village to the stroke of land just inside the wall. He noted that only the farthest flank of the crater hosted some buildings and the stroke along the wall none at all, not even some barns or storagebuildings.

"_Well with this layout it's got to be a pain in the ass to defend the village if they build to close to the craters flanks, so that makes sense" _the traveler thought.

"_Guess that explains the fortified walls and watchtowers on the outside of the crater._"

"Goodafternoon, can you state your name and business?" asked Kotetsu.

The traveler didn't seem to take notice that he was being talked to. He looked up to the faces of the Hokages sculpted in the cliffside, a smirk appearing on his face while studying the five faces. "_So, he still didn't make it..._".

Kotetsu tried again "Eh hello, would you state..." that's when he was able to make out the travelers face, because the traveler still looked up the hood didn't hide his face as effective anymore. A face that no citizen or ninja from the village hidden in the leaves would ever forget.

"**Wha... It's you..., what are your intentions?**" he yelled while taking a stance and drawing a kunai, knocking over his chair in the process.

A scowl came across the strangers face as he also took his stance.  
>"<strong>My intentions are none of your business<strong>" was the only response Kotetsu got, a second later the traveler appeared right in front of him and made a slashing motion toward Kotetsu's face.

"_So fast!" _Kotetsu thought, too slow to dodge, he expected the flash of a blade reflecting the sun to be the last thing he ever saw, but all he saw was some kind of black stick before he got knocked uncounsious. This whole incident had taken place in less than 15 seconds.

"Don't get all hostile and start waving around weapons when you demand information from someone, you idiot" the traveler mumbled.

As if on cue Izumo stepped out of the bushes "What's the ruckus about Kotetsu? I leave for 5min. and you start shouting the whole village together."

That's when he noticed Kotetsu laying unconsious and the traveler standing next to him. He immediately took a stance while drawing a kunai.

"**Who are you and what are you up to?**", the traveler took his stance once again ,"**Stand down or face the consequences!**"

The traveler sighed "_They never learn, do they?..._"

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><p><strong>To be continued…<strong>

**next time:**

**Chapter 3: Arrival at the leaf – This is becoming a bad habit!**

AN: Don't be afraid of the review button it's the best way to help me improve my writing and story with your hints, tips and suggestions.

And the better my story gets, the easier it will be for you to enjoy it.

Also, it could be a while before I update again, I have my exams in January for my 3 last courses (the ones I failed last year). If I pass this time I get to graduate in February :D.

I promise to work on my grammar though.

And I'm sorry that I ended with this kind of cliffhanger. Don't know if it's a good one or not but I expect to hear that from you all

A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year,

I'll see you all next month at the latest on the 24 of Januari


	4. Chapter 3  Arrival at the Leaf

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The OCs however I do own so keep your hands of those… :p**

"speech" / "**shouts**" / "_thoughts_" / "**a**_**ngry thoughts**_"

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><p><strong>Chapter 3: Arrival at the leaf – this is becoming a bad habit!<strong>

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><p>"<em>Tsh, wimps"<em> the hooded stranger thought. He stood within the city walls with Kotetsu and Izumo lying unconscious at his feet.  
>"<em>None of them proved a real threat; still this wouldn't have been needed if I had been more careful. But what's done is done;<br>now I need to find a good spot to wait for him" _With that he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

><p>"Nice weather" Naruto said "Kotetsu will almost surely be napping again"<p>

He and Sakura had separated from Hiroshi and Isamu the day before and would reach the hidden leaf in about ten minutes.  
>"It sure is, but I hope for Kotetsu's sake that he stays focused. The last time he got scolded again for dozing off during guard duty was only last month. Imagine what Tsunade-sama would do when she catches him sleeping again within so little time." Sakura responded, not entirely unamused.<br>"_I wonder what that's about"_ Naruto thought when he noticed her grin.

Naruto wasn't the only one who had made a name for himself in the latest shinobi war. With her great chakra control, overwhelming combat prowess and impressive medical jutsu, the world saw her as one of the only medical shinobis to come close to the legendary slug princess's level. That, and the fact that she was quite the eye catcher had gotten her quite a few admirers, with Kotetsu among them.

She didn't really mind having admirers, who would, but the fact that he had embarrassed her, not to mention himself,  
>by confessing to her in the middle of the staff room at the hospital, was something she hadn't taken too well. And even though her colleagues had promised to keep it a secret it had taken weeks before they had stopped teasing her with it. It was a small miracle Naruto didn't know about it yet.<p>

"Talking about Tsunade-sama" Sakura continued, changing the subject "You think she will have a solution on that jounin matter yet?"  
>She was talking about another obstacle Naruto had to overcome before he could be announced as Tsunade's successor for the position of hokage.<br>He had to be of jounin rank first. Given Naruto's current skill making jounin shouldn't be too much of a problem; the problem was of an entirely different kind.

He was still a genin.  
>Tsunade couldn't let him skip the chunin exams without being accused of playing favorites and the other kage would most likely be complaining about the fairness of the chunin exam if the hero of the last war would participate.<br>The council had put her in a difficult position by declaring the next hokage should be chosen from among her strongest jounin.

They claimed it was only appropriate,  
>you can't go running to the feudal lord with the declaration that you give a genin a position that is almost equal to his own.<br>Tsunade had to admit that they had a point but she knew their true reasons, the council still doesn't fully trust Naruto.  
>The way how he got everybody to believe in him frightened them.<p>

Naruto took this rather positive because it meant that they weren't afraid of him or the Kyuubi anymore.  
>Tsunade was less optimistic, how would Naruto be able to lead a ninja village with people that did nothing but distrust him, afraid of the fact that they might be consoled into supporting his, sometimes ridiculous difficult, goals.<p>

"She probably already has a solution in mind but doesn't want to get my hopes up in case those old coots come up with something new," Naruto responded.  
>"I suppose you're right," Sakura sighed<br>"I guess we'll know it pretty soon" she added when the village's gates came into sight.

"And looks like Kotetsu is indeed slacking off alright, he's just asking to be caught by Tsunade-sama.  
>Sunbathing in the middle of the road what is he thinking? Should we need to go get Tsunade-sama before checking in?"<br>Again Naruto noticed that little grin "Sakura, care to explain why you'd get pleasure out of Kotetsu being in trouble?"  
>"That's something between him and me," she huffed. <em>"Shit, I forgot he didn't know about it."<br>_"Really, I didn't know you two where that close" Naruto pressed on. That last remark got him a punch on his head sending him out of the tress towards the ground, lucky for him he managed to land on his feet.  
>"<strong>We're not close, got it?" <strong>she yelled at him  
>"Yes, I'm sorry Sakura-chan" he responded, while rubbing his head <em>"Note to self: don't mention Kotetsu around Sakura. But hell, what was all that about? It was an innocent question"<em> he thought while jumping in the trees again.

"Now that we're closer I highly doubt they're sleeping. Look, it's not just Kotetsu but Izumo as well and that's got to be a really uncomfortable position to sleep in." Sakura said  
>"If they're not sleeping then something's wrong" Naruto responded, increasing his speed.<p>

* * *

><p>"They're alright, they've just been knocked unconscious" Naruto yelled out to Sakura who couldn't quite keep up with him on his full speed.<p>

"That's a relief, lay them on that table so I can check them over"  
>she pointed towards the booth at the side of the road, her hands already glowing green.<p>

"Kotetsu has a minor concussion, strange didn't know he had brains, but he will be fine." she announced "Can you blindfold him for me, Naruto? Concussions heal faster when there doesn't get light into their eyes."  
>"Sure," Naruto said, while Naruto was blindfolding Kotetsu with a piece of linen, Sakura started to check Izumo over;<br>however, Izumo was already recovering and blinked a few times to get the blur out of his eyes."

"Sakura-san, Naruto," he started, "What happened?" Then he noticed Kotetsu lying beside him. "Oh that's right, there's an intruder. He's wearing a dark brown cloak with a hood. He must be somewhere in the village already, we must hurry and warn Tsunade-sama."  
>"We'll take care of that, stay with Kotetsu until he regains consciousness and then get him to the hospital. He's already gotten treatment so all he has to do now is rest. I'll take care of warning Tsunade-sama. Naruto, will you start looking for this intruder?"<p>

Naruto had already drawn upon the Kyuubi's chakra; he nodded once to Sakura and started down the slope, searching for evil intentions. Sakura gave Izumo a flare, "if you see any of that intruder's comrades coming, use this." With that she started for the hokage's building.

* * *

><p>Naruto had already reached the village and taken to the rooftops, so far he hadn't had any luck finding someone with evil intentions. So he decided to do a circle of the perimeter of Konoha, with the speed he had while using the Kyuubi-cloak he would have done by the time that Sakura had briefed the old hag.<p>

He was just about to finish his circle when he noticed something. On one of the training grounds above the hokage faces was a sole chakra source noticeable, the level was constant which meant that that person was most likely not training. Also Naruto was quite sure he hadn't felt this chakra before in this mode, it was difficult to tell since it was almost impossible to remember all chakra signatures of the entire village. But he decided it would be best to check it out, for all he knew that intruder could be getting a layout of the village. The high vantage point would surely help such a cause.

After Pein's attack on the leaf, the village hadn't been the only thing that was destroyed. The training fields had also been completely devastated.  
>Because of this, Tsunade had ordered the construction of several new training grounds; a couple of them on the mountain above the hokage faces and several outside the village walls. The new locations had several advantages. First they made room for more economical and residential structures and second the village would have to spend less money on repairing damaged training fields. On the training fields above the hokage faces it was forbidden to use jutsu that dealt a huge amount of environmental damage, a rule that was easily followed by all the Konoha shinobi because they didn't want to risk damaging their precious monument, and the training grounds outside the village were to be used as any shinobi saw fit.<p>

It was to the higher training grounds that Naruto was running too. And not entirely to his surprise, when he neared the hokage's building, right under the stone faces, he was able to make out the shape of a cloaked figure standing on the sculpted head of the godaime hokage Tsunade. Seeing this he increased his speed even more, landed on the roof of the building opposite of the hokage's building, bend his knees and jumped as high as he could. When he reached the peak of his jump he used the Kyuubi cloak to form a chakra arm and carefully grabbed the nose of the sculpted Tsunade, which he used to propel him even higher causing him to fly past the stranger.

While falling down he remembered the rule about non-destructive jutsu in this place and let his Kyuubi cloak dissipate, after all his opponent was just one guy, no need for overkill. He aligned his body in a way that he would dive towards the stranger and reared back his fist, ready to attack.

* * *

><p>Sakura hurried up the stairs and knocked on the door of the hokage's office. Not waiting for a response, she barged in.<br>"Tsunade-sama, there's an emergency. An intruder has knocked out Izumo and Kotetsu near the main gate and infiltrated the village. Naruto is already looking for him."

"What," Tsunade asked, almost choking in her sake, "have you any description of this intruder?"  
>"Yes Tsunade-sama, shortly after our arrival Izumo regained consciousness, he gave us a vague description. The intruder should be wearing a hooded dark brown cloak." Sakura answered.<p>

"Very well," Tsunade gestured and two ANBU appeared before her desk, "spread the word and assist Naruto in the search," she ordered. The two ANBU wasted no time acknowledging her order and disappeared.

"How grave are the injuries of Izumo and Kotetsu?" Tsunade inquired.  
>"They're both alright," Sakura reported, "Kotetsu has a minor concussion and was still unconscious when I left. Izumo is alright and is keeping an eye on Kotetsu; I've also given him a flare to use in case there are more intruders."<p>

"Good job," Tsunade complimented her, "you can now go and assist Naruto in his search."

"I don't think that will be necessary," Sakura smirked, upon noticing Naruto landing on the building opposite of her "It looks like he has already found the intruder."

* * *

><p>Naruto dove right into the stranger while throwing a punch, because of the momentum of his fall the force behind the punch was immense. The stranger was unfazed by this caught Naruto's punch and used its power to fling Naruto towards the other end of the training field.<p>

"_This guy sure knows his taijutsu" _Naruto thought while landing on the other end of the training field, skidding to a stop.  
>He estimated that they were about a soccer field apart. Naruto noted that the stranger wore in addition to his cloak, a pair of sunglasses and a shawl. <em>"He sure goes out of his way to hide his identity. He must have donned those things after entering the village; otherwise Izumo would have mentioned it."<em> He thought, _"Oh, well he's going down anyway."_

Taking initiative Naruto started running towards the stranger, not intending to wait, the stranger did likewise and they met in the middle of the field.  
>"<em>Damn, he's almost as fast as I am, shit here he comes"<em> Naruto thought while dodging a punch.

Not giving the stranger any time to start another attack, he tried to get a punch in of his own.  
>The stranger sidestepped, grabbed his arm and twisted it backwards. Naruto jumped and let his body follow the course of the twist, landing in a crouch he attempted to sweep the stranger's legs. Anticipating this he jumped to avoid the attack and kicked at Naruto who'd already rolled out of the way.<p>

Getting up, Naruto and the stranger were now back to back, Naruto threw his right elbow towards the stranger's back, in an attempt to surprise him.  
>It was Naruto who was surprised however, as the stranger had the same idea and threw his elbow in the same manner, knocking Naruto's attack away and spinning him around. Using the momentum of this involuntary spin, Naruto swung his left elbow toward the stranger's head.<br>The stranger barely dodged, unfazed that his surprise attack didn't work and equipped a kunai.

Noticing this, Naruto grabbed a kunai of his own and attempted to block the stranger's slash. But the stranger's swing was too fast, it was as if he was used to a longer and more heavy weapon than a kunai, resulting in them both missing their targets and being locked in an elbow-to-elbow power struggle.

Neither able to overpower the other, they used their free arms to throw a punch at the other.  
>Both attacks hit squarely on the other's cheek, resulting in them flying apart towards opposite ends of the training field.<p>

"_Ow, that hurt"_ Naruto thought while skidding to a stop _"There's no doubt about it, I've fought this guy before and more than once if I had to guess. Time to kick things up a notch." _Wasting no more time, he brought his hands up in a cross-like seal **"Kage bunshin no jutsu"** he yelled, causing two clones to poof into existence.

They immediately started rushing towards the stranger. The stranger threw the kunai he still had equipped, dispelling one of the clones and drew a sword in a black scabbard, but made no move to unsheathe it.

"_Why isn't he unsheathing his sword, is he underestimating me?"_ Naruto wondered while getting pissed at the stranger,_" I'll show him why they call me the number one most unpredictable ninja_" and threw his kunai.

The stranger deflected the kunai with his still sheathed sword and started to move the weapon to engage the clone that had closed in on him.  
>Only to find that the damned thing didn't want to move.<p>

Looking behind him he saw another Naruto tugging at the other end of the scabbard. The stranger cursed, the kunai he thought he had deflected, had been a transformed clone, immediately after he had deflected the supposed kunai and had prepared to engage the clone that was rushing to him, the transformed clone had dropped the transformation and grabbed the scabbard.

Unable to defend himself in time he got kicked on the chin by the rushing clone at the same time that the until-a-moment-ago kunai had punched him in the stomach. The combined attack resulted in him flying back before landing in a very ungraceful and painful looking way.  
>"<em>That will teach him to underestimate me,"<em> Naruto thought, grinning at the stranger's demise.

"**Naruto are you alright?"** Sakura called out to him, she and Tsunade had arrived at the upper training grounds.  
>Naruto was about to respond when Sakura suddenly stood stunned.<br>It was as if Shikamaru had caught her with his shadow imitation technique.  
>She just stood there, doing a passable imitation of a fish on dry land. Tsunade looked equally dumbstruck.<p>

Naruto turned to look at the cause of their strange behavior.  
>The stranger had gotten up; he had lost his hood, shawl and sunglasses because of that last attack, revealing his face,<br>a face they all knew very well.

"**Sasuke…"**

* * *

><p><strong>To be continued…<strong>

**next time:**

**Chapter 4: Enter Sasuke – A new danger and an explanation.**

AN: This chapter came out sooner than I had expected. The next one will take at least until the 24th January.

And don't be afraid of the review button it's the best way to help me improve my writing and story with your hints, tips and suggestions.

And the better my story gets, the easier it will be for you to enjoy it.

Also I'd really like to know what you thought of the fighting scene in this chapter. Was it too difficult to follow? Too boring? Something else? Let me know but try to give me a reason, I rarely notice my own mistakes without them being pointed out clearly.

Thx in advance,

Torxe :p


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